


Return to Old Habits

by lilydaydreams



Series: One-shots from my unfinished Buffy AU [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Advice, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Flirting, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Post-Season/Series 06, Romantic Friendship, Season/Series 07, Vengeance Demon(s), but not enough for me to feel justified tagging it as such, slight giles/anya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:07:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22010824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilydaydreams/pseuds/lilydaydreams
Summary: Anya and Giles have a chat about her failed wedding and reinstatement as a vengeance demon.
Relationships: Rupert Giles & Anya Jenkins
Series: One-shots from my unfinished Buffy AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584352
Kudos: 4





	Return to Old Habits

**Author's Note:**

> Slight AU/canon divergent post season 6 universe where Giles stays in Sunnydale to train Willow/help in her recovery and Tara doesn't die. Part of a longer work on ff.net that I'm probably not going to finish anytime soon, oops.

It was early evening, and he had two options now. Go into his normal routine of returning home to nurse a whiskey, read some books, write in his journal, perhaps play some classic rock, then go to sleep. Or he could stay here in the Magic Box for awhile longer and then return to his normal routine.

He'd been picking option two every day this week. Somehow, spending time in a business that he'd helped start, with some company, even if it was only Anya going about her work duties, was much better than going home and being completely alone.

"You're not trying to take the shop back from me, are you?" asked Anya. She asked that every day, and it had become somewhat of a running joke. Well, he thought it was funny. She was likely at least partly serious.

"No, the shop is entirely yours now," he reassured her for the umpteenth time.

He sat down at the table near the register and settled down to write in his journal. She went around the shop, tidying it before closing. "So, how's Willow's training going?" she asked him, that sort of obligatory politeness rare for her. She was either trying very hard to be pleasant or she wanted something. He didn't know which.

"It's quite well, thank you for asking! We introduced some physical training today so she's not entirely reliant on her magic."

"Hmm. Makes sense," she said, vaguely affirmative of his choice. "How's the, like, not being evil part going?" Ah, there it was. She couldn't repress her bluntness for very long.

In any case, he laughed. It was refreshing, in a way, not to have to tip-toe around the subject like with everyone else. "I don't think she's a threat. She was unstable and lapsed into a temporary state where she made some very bad choices," he said. He'd been repeating that phrase to himself a million times in his head, hoping he was right and that Willow wasn't inherently bad. Anya looked like she was about to argue, so he said something he knew would shut her up right away. "What about you?"

"I don't know what you mean," said Anya, knowing exactly what he meant.

"How's the world of vengeance lately?"

"Ugh. You weren't supposed to know about that."

"Yet I do, and I'm not going to let it go easily, either."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I mean, if it makes you feel any better, apparently I'm not doing very well. Halfrek and D'Hoffryn and the others think my curses have been pathetic and weak-willed and uninspired."

"You know this isn't what you want to do, Anya, and maybe that's showing through in what you might see as your 'quality of work,'" he said gently. "It doesn't matter how many cheating men you curse, how many other heartbreaks you try to fix with violence. It's not going to change what happened at your wedding."

"My not-wedding," she corrected bitterly. "That's the entire problem."

"Anya. I know you don't want to hear this from me, but I might have some insight to offer on that subject."

"How?" she questioned. "You weren't even there. You were invited, of course, but you didn't make it." Her tone was reproachful and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Right, sorry, I didn't make an international flight to attend your wedding that got called off at the last moment," he answered sarcastically. _Giles,_ he told himself. _Stop squabbling like a child_. He pulled himself together and continued. "I wasn't at your wedding, but I know you, and I've known Xander since he was 16. I've watched him grow up, and I like to think I've been a part of his growing up."

Anya finished her closing duties and locked up, then sat herself down at the table directly across from him. Her arms were crossed and her face purposefully blank, but Giles could tell she was at least mildly intrigued. In any case, she so desperately needed to talk about it. "Okay, fine. Tell me, Giles, why did Xander leave me at the altar?"

"Well, in short, Xander is an idiot." This drew a laugh and a wide, genuine smile from her and she uncrossed her arms. "And I spoke to him, actually. It had struck me as so odd how he can sometimes be so mature, step up to his role and be a man at times, and how he could be so woefully immature on his wedding day. There was the vision he got, of course, which he blames for much of it, but that just fed off the doubts he already had."

"But why? Why the hell would he have doubts about marrying me, someone interesting and passionate who loved him and was loyal to a fault, and honestly, was the second hottest girl who's ever been into him?" Anya questioned, the words coming out a messy jumble. "The first hottest was Cordelia," she clarified, "And she was a total fluke anyway."

Giles stared at her in the dim light. Anya and her fired-up, opinionated self. Her brutal honesty and capability of whatever she set her mind to. Her rather endearing ineptitude with people. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why the hell anyone would give up the chance to be with such an incredible woman.

"Well, I don't know why, and clearly you don't know why either, but you know what else? I sometimes felt like he was just in it for the sex. And then every time we weren't having sex, and I was just being myself, he was embarrassed to be around me. I was a liability for him."

Giles couldn't argue with this. Xander cared for Anya, certainly, but much of the time it did seem like he tried to shut her down when she said things he didn't agree with or that struck him as too out of the ordinary. "You're quite right, there. I've noticed that dynamic between you two. You have to understand that he cares for you, deeply―"

She cut him off abruptly. "Xander put you up to this! He's bribed you to get me to forgive him!"

"Believe it or not, Anya, I'm speaking to you out of my own free will. And I'm not defending Xander. He did something catastrophically foolish and selfish." Giles tilted his head to the side and looked her right in the eye. "There's always been a dramatic maturity gap between the two of you. Yes, Xander seemed more mature, at times, simply because you were still getting used to the trappings of mortality. But in reality, he's got 21 years of life experience and you have, what, how many centuries now?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "I stopped counting. I dislike feeling old. Quite a few, in any case."

"Well, yes, you see what I mean. He's still growing up. You're still figuring out humanity, but those are different issues."

She seemed to think this over for a moment and reluctantly agreed. "I suppose so. That doesn't change how he hurt me, though. And he thinks he owns me! It's ridiculous. I have sex with Spike _one_ time and he berates me for it. As if he's got any say after leaving me."

Giles made a strangled noise in his throat and quickly tried to disguise it as a cough. "You...had sex with Spike?" _Good God. Who hasn't had sex with Spike?_ He wondered.

"You're not going to judge me too, are you? Men. Typical."

"No, ah, no, I definitely would not judge you for who you choose to sleep with. Definitely not," Giles tried to reassure her, attempting to scrub the mental image from his mind. He took off his glasses and began cleaning them.

"You're definitely judging, Giles, but I appreciate that you're pretending not to. Even if it's half-assed pretending." Anya smiled and patted his arm in what he assumed was an attempt at an affectionate gesture. "Well, anyway, it was just one time, and we were really drunk and sad, and next thing I know, he's got me over the table―"

Giles cleared his throat loudly. "I don't need details, thank you, Anya." He considered what she'd just said and rather horrified, asked, "The table we're sitting at right now?"

She nodded blithely. "Yeah." _Oh dear lord_ , he thought, trying to subtly push his chair away from the table. She cocked her head and said frankly, "You know, Giles, I could make a tradition out of this. Talking to men about how Xander broke my heart at this table, then having rebound sex on it?"

He sputtered and felt his face turning pink, trying to figure out whether she was suggesting what he thought she was suggesting. She laughed. "Calm down, Rupert. I'm kidding." He laughed nervously and redirected the conversation to how the shop was doing in the absence of his leadership, and did his best to ignore what she'd just said and the fact that she'd called him by his first name. Both things proved difficult to forget.


End file.
